spruce

[coxy]

I would like to air dry some 4to6 inch thick spruce boards that are going to be about 24 to 30 wide will I need any thing to keep them bowing or curling up and what can I do to keep them from splitting  they will be in my house do dry  thanks for any info

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

The moisture from these drying pieces in your house could be a problem.  Why in the house and not outside?  Are you planning to use normal stacking?  What is your final MC target?

[coxy]

well i though in side would be better but may be not my plans are to make a table out of it the tree was 49in at the stump and 37in at top at 16ft  cut it to 8ft long and split it as it was to big for the band mills in my town   though it would stain out side that's why I thought in side  any info would be great

[thecfarm]

 POSTON drys slabs and seem like a member just had a cherry slab that he air dryed for years. I know not spruce,but they might be able to help.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

At the least, I would air drying to under 20% MC, and then, if you do not have a kiln, move a few pieces at a time into a warm location.

Note that it would not be unusual to find green spruce sapwood at very high MC...100 pounds of green sapwood can have nearly 60 pounds of water and just 40 pounds of dry wood.

[coxy]

so my plans came to a holt     thought I could get it done by January  well more time to do some thing else  one more thing I want to get some white birch about 3to 4in with bark on how long do you think it will take to dry      sorry to be a pain in the butt  ;D                                 thanks every one

[mikeb1079]

i don't know about the birch drying time but gene is spot on about the spruce.  likely that bringing it inside too soon it will check badly.  good things to those who wait   ;D

[Mountain Guardian]

I have mostly spruce here on my place, blue spruce and Norway spruce, I have not tried to cut or dry any of it, the couple of spruces I cut down in the front yard were horribly twisted and I wound up cutting them both into firewood.  From my experience mine were chock full of sap, I can't imagine having it in my house and dripping sap everywhere.

I would cover it with plastic and leave it open enough for air to travel through for the winter.  If you bring it in the house, which I have also dried lumber in the house in winter time, thankfully my wife is as bad as I am with wood working, I would at least use some plastic to catch any dripping sap.  To combat end checking you can paint the ends which should help to reduce the checking.  You can also wrap them in plastic so to slow down the drying process a bit in the house which will also help with the checking and cracking.